


Edge of Freedom

by Astaldowen



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, slight AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-05-16 09:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14808602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astaldowen/pseuds/Astaldowen
Summary: When Steve learns of a covert SHIELD operation to eliminate the Winter Soldier, he immediately sets out to stop it. And when Fury discovers Captain Rogers's disappearance, he sends a trusted agent to track him down. But she's battling demons of her own, and when opposing missions collide, a deal is struck that brings about more than either party bargained for. Slight AU, set between CAWS and CACW directly after AoU. Rating for violence and mild language.





	1. Prologue: The Asset

Mission: Preservation of HYDRA.

Primary target: Level eight. Enhanced. Considered extremely dangerous. Engage on sight.

Secondary targets: Any other threat to the launch of Project Insight. Eliminate immediately.

The orders were the only thing to fill his head. Crouched on his perch well beyond any prying eyes, he observed the unfolding storm. Gunfire popped from multiple floors. Three massive helicarriers slowly rose into the sky, and a steady stream of well-dressed people stampeded out of the front doors of the Triskelion, sobbing and swearing and dragging their less fortunate friends behind them.

They screamed, but he didn’t move. Not until a voice broke through the static in his comms:

“Twenty-second floor. STRIKE compromised. Targets: levels six and seven. Engage and eliminate.”

“Yes, sir.”

Using his metal arm to control the fall, he slid from his hiding place. Light on his feet and armed to the teeth, he stalked through and around the chaos, nothing more than the smoke in the air. He moved up uncrowded stairwells and through air vents until he finally got a good vantage point to assess the target.

Five hostiles. Two male, three female. Insignia on left shoulder patch indicating SHIELD Special Forces.

And based on the number of STRIKE combatants down, they fought like it.

He’d need to make this quick.

Black sights lined up on the first target, and a finger wrapped around the trigger. He squeezed, the rifle pushed back into his shoulder, and the target fell.

The second and third came down in the same ghostly staccato. Two remained: a huge man that stood over the bodies of the other three as STRIKE began to rally, and a woman with a commanding air that had taken cover but still fired on the STRIKE commandos and barked into her comms.

She was the smart one.

The man crumpled to the floor, three exit wounds in his chest.

Now it was just a waiting game.

One little mistake. One break in resolve. One split second of emotion overriding training.

There.

Black sights lined up on the target. A finger wrapped around the trigger and squeezed. The rifle pushed back into his shoulder, and the target stumbled.

He pulled the trigger again, and the target fell.

The STRIKE commandos filed out of the room. As he slid from his perch and ran towards the flight pad, their commander’s voice crackled through his comms:

“Well done, Soldier.”


	2. Chapter 1: Code Rogue

Isolation, upheaval, uncertainty, loneliness. He’d known the fullness of those feeling from the time he was eighteen, forced by circumstance to live on his own. At least then he’d had people the got it, that understood the world as he did because it was the only world they had ever known.

Now, Steve mused, things were much different.

He had friends, he knew that much. Sam hadn’t left his side from the first time he’d met him in Washington, and he had the feeling that Natasha, in spite of herself, would probably take a bullet for him if it came down to it. Not that he’d let her. As for the rest of the Avengers, they were always on call, and they hadn’t once failed him. Still, a lot of him still missed the old world, the world on the other side of the ice. Parts of it still existed; though old and physically frail, Peggy still lived in Winchester, and he caught glimpses of Howard every time Tony Stark smiled.

Then there was Bucky.

Still alive, at the very least, but definitely, _definitely_ changed.

He knew his old friend was still in HYDRA’s mental deathtrap somewhere, otherwise he wouldn’t be breathing. What he didn’t know was how much of him was left, or even where he was. Almost a year of chasing cold leads had gotten him nowhere, but he couldn’t let himself give up. Bucky would’ve done the same for him.

But 1945 was one thing; 2015 was another, full of pain and destruction all its own.

He wasn’t going to deny the tragedy that Ultron had been, but he also knew beyond the shadow of a doubt they’d been right in stopping him when they did. The effects of it still weighed on him heavily though, and  the constant coverage of the aftermath that continually plastered itself all over the news certainly didn’t help much.

After all, he knew a thing or two about displacement.

In the days immediately following the carnage, he’d somehow managed to convince Fury to open up old SHIELD bases to shelter those who’d been affected. The more the refugees filed in, the more the weight began to lift off of his chest, little bit by little bit. But looking into the faces of the survivors and hearing their stories still grieved him, and as he knelt in front of a mother with two little children as she recounted hers, his heart broke for at least the thousandth time in the past month or so.

“I didn’t think we’d make it out,” she said. “I thought we’d be caught in the crossfire, but then we saw you…”

Tears cut her off, and she tightened her grip on her children. Steve just offered an empathetic expression.

“There really were angels watching over us,” she managed. “It gave us hope.” She took his hand and gave it a squeeze. “You and your friends saved my children. _Thank you._ ”

Steve just nodded. “You keep fighting,” he said. “It’s not fair, and it’s not gonna be easy, and I hate that it happened to you, but I know that the people of Sokovia are strong enough to get through this. We’re here to make sure that you do.”

Tears poured down her face again, and he laid a hand on her shoulder before standing up.

“It _will_ get better,” he said. “Don’t give up.”

She just continued to nod emphatically, and he couldn’t help but smile a little.

Eventually he made his way out into a smaller hallway, lost in his own hard thoughts, but a set of footsteps behind him snapped him out of them.

“Seeing you around really lifts their spirits,” a voice said from behind him.

“It’s not enough, Nick,” he said, turning to find Director Fury standing behind him. “They need more supplies. Food, blankets, medicine--”

“Which we’re working with the Stark Relief Foundation to be able to provide.”

Steve just sighed. Fury continued.

“We’re doing the best we can, Captain, but in case you haven’t noticed, we’re a little short staffed.”

He had a point.

“Maybe it’s time you went back to New York,” Fury continued. “Try to get this newfangled thing called rest.”

Steve smirked. “I’ll rest when the world does. And that’s not happening anytime soon.”

Fury took a few steps closer. “We’ve got things well in hand here,” he said. “Just give it time.”

Finally Steve relented. “Okay.”

With that, Fury disappeared back down the hall again. Steve remained frozen for a second, fixated on an undefined spot on the floor before slowly beginning to make his way down to the garage.

But when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, he stopped dead.

An agent, visor up and armed to the teeth, hurriedly disappeared around a corner and soon as he saw him. Guard shooting up, Steve followed him at a distance until he disappeared into a debriefing room. A strong voice floated out from inside; he pressed himself up against the wall and listened. What he heard made his blood run cold.

“You all know what he did in Washington. Special Forces Squad Six was one of the most elite under our command, and he knocked them down like a bunch of freaking dominoes. The Winter Soldier is a _liability_ , ladies and gentleman, and it’s our job to tie that loose end up. We have order from Director Fury to shoot on sight, no questions asked—”

That was all he could make himself listen to. As quietly as he could, he stormed down the hall towards the garage.

So _that_ was why Fury’d tried to get rid of him earlier…

It didn’t matter. No matter what, he told himself, he would get to Bucky first.

He picked up his pace, ignoring the hard footsteps that followed him.

“Captain Rogers!” Agent Hill barked from behind.

He just disappeared around a corner and tried to lose her in response. Still she kept coming.

“Captain Rogers!” she called again.

Now Hill sounded mad. But that had never stopped him before. The footsteps slowed; he could just barely hear her voice barking orders into her radio, the only bit of which he caught was “code Rogue.”

Just then the base above him leapt into action. He swore under his breath.

He’d _just_ gotten off of threat watch…

_Guess this is the normal routine now,_ he thought to himself as he took off down the hallway. A friend’s words immediately jumped into his head:

_“First rule of going on the run is don’t run. Walk.”_

It made him feel all the worse for drawing this much attention to himself, but if he didn’t get there fast enough—

The garage doors jumped into view. A few warning shots were fired as he sprinted towards his Harley and fired it up. The engine roared and the tires squealed as orders to stand down boomed over the intercom.

He responded to them the way he always had since 1945.

He sped up.

Black SUVs poured out of the base behind him, but he knew they couldn’t go far before they’d get “too public” and be forced to turn around. He gunned it towards the interstate. A few more shots rang out behind him—not intended to kill, but certainly there to send a message or take his tires out—and rubber squealed again as he made a last-minute sharp turn. A few SUVs skidded and slammed into a huge tree, the others piled up behind them in an avalanche of burning rubber, twisted metal, and broken glass.

Steve didn’t look to see if anyone was hurt.

He caught Hill jumping out of one of them in his little side-view mirror, looking as cold, frustrated, and _done_ as ever as she fumbled with a radio. Other agents started crawling out of the wreckage, but Steve pushed onwards.

Fury definitely wouldn’t be pleased, but Fury would get over it.

He sped onto a huge concrete bridge. The Pentagon eventually popped into view, and the rest of Washington sprawled out in the distance beyond it. An empty spot where the Triskelion used to be jumped out at him out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t have time to look.

He _knew_ Fury’d have someone after him soon, and someone good. Someone sneaky, intimidating, and big. Or maybe even a friend. He’d have to keep his eyes open.

His thoughts turned back to Bucky.

Steve wasn’t quite sure where his old friend would be—he never was, now that he thought about it—and as he flew down the merge ramp onto another interstate, he didn’t quite know where _he’d_ end up, either.

All he knew was time was _not_ on his side.

Then again, when was it ever?

* * *

 

“Not sure, boss. No telling where he might be now.”

        Fury just sighed over the radio. Agent Hill could hear the look on his face through it: jaw set, glare fixed, eye twitching just a little. Not that _she_ was exactly thrilled with the situation, but there definitely wasn’t much use in standing around in the middle of the road, either.

        “I can have a team after him in five minutes,” she suggested, rubbing her temple.

        _“No. He’ll expect that. We need something more subtle. He’s getting smarter.”_

        Not that Rogers was ever an idiot, but Fury definitely had a point. It grated on her nerves, along with the terse silence that poured from the other end of the radio, but she didn’t show it.

        “Agent Garcia around?”

        _“Negative. Still undercover in Frankfurt.”_

        She thought for a second. “Agent Mills is in St. Mary’s. I’ll—”

        _“Yeah, no. He’ll get run over.”_

        “And Agent Ferguson hasn’t made contact in a month.” She sighed. “What about Callis?”

        _“She’s CIA now, remember? Also…hell no.”_

        Hill’s head started to hurt, and Fury went silent again, which made it worse. After what seemed like ages, she heard a stir on the other side that sounded an awful lot like an “aha” moment.  

        _“Hill,”_ Fury finally said. _“Get me Agent Reeves.”_


	3. Agent Alyson Reeves, SHIELD Special Forces

No inspirational presidential quotes. No stainless steel statues. Not even a  _ “Never Forget.” _ Just a bridge with windows of bulletproof glass looking down through the Potomac river and five massive black granite pillars set in a semi-circle. 

Most people weren’t fond of a memorial made with taxpayer dollars erected to what lots of folks liked to believe was a terrorist organization, but that made this the one place in the Washington area where it was humanly possible to be alone.

Right now, that was just what Aly needed.

The pillars sat equidistant around a circle emblazoned with SHIELD’s old seal. The bright afternoon sunlight caught in the sharp etches of the countless names engraved into each pillar, and amid the pillars sat what was left of the towering skyscraper that used to cut like a black knife through Arlington’s blue sky. 

Aly’s footsteps hardly made a sound on the bridge as she peered down through one of the windows. The dark, twisted remains of a helicarrier sat just inches below her feet. The idea of what else probably lay down there sent chills up her spine.

_ It’s been a year. _

The thought jumped into her head without bravado, without the aggressive need to be recognized, without the stab to the heart that she thought it would. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that for the real anniversary--April 4th--she’d been deep underground in Eastern Europe, gearing up for what ended up being her first mission back on the field.

Her first mission since the day everything went to hell. 

She remembered a similar day years back when her eye caught the Pentagon, the day her mind was made up for her, the day she vowed to keep something like that from happening again.

When she turned back towards the pillars, her mind quietly went back to the day just over a year ago when that promise broke. 

Slowly she meandered around the pillars, her eyes scanning the names, departments, and squad numbers until she finally found what she was looking for:

_ Special Forces. _

A few lines further down:  _ Squad 6.  _

_ Michael Chavez. John “Johnny” Fitzpatrick. Amber Singh. Jessica Wolff.  _

Her fingers quietly traced over the names, brushing away the dirt and pollen that had managed to accumulate around them, and she fought unsuccessfully to keep the vivid memories that threatened to surface from overtaking her mind. 

The media may have seen the flames around the Triskelion, the helicarriers dropping from the sky, and the uncovered conspiracy trending on Twitter, but they hadn’t witnessed the extraordinary bravery, the quick thinking in the face of terrible danger, the willingness to sacrifice life and limb to rescue others. They hadn’t dodged punches, thwarted knives, and dragged victims from the rubble amid bellowing, panicked orders in Russian. They hadn’t watched nearly their entire command fall from slugs that came from nowhere. 

They hadn’t felt the burn when two of those slugs sank into their own flesh. They hadn’t seen the Triskelion up in flames through the tinted blur of an ambulance window. They hadn’t vowed to be the first man in and the last man out and broken that vow when it mattered most. 

Aly had.

The four names engraved on that pillar spoke more to her failure than anything. It didn’t burn nearly as much as it used to, but she certainly still felt the weight as she stooped and laid the flowers she’d been holding at the foot of the pillar and took a step back. A silent promise--the same one that she’d whispered from a wheelchair at four separate funerals--rebranded itself onto her heart.

No matter what happened, she would  _ not _ fail again. 

Her phone suddenly rang and cut her thoughts short. She picked it up and glanced at the caller ID.

_ Maria Hill. _

She sighed and tried to keep her voice even.

“Yes, ma’am.”

_ “Agent Reeves, this is Agent Hill. Get to headquarters as quickly as you can. We have an assignment for you.”  _

“With all due respect, I’m currently on leave--”

_ “Agent...this is Code Rogue.” _

Concern temporarily registered in her eyes, then she nodded.

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

_ “See you then.” _

“Bye.” 

She hung up, and frustration and worry tinged her sigh as she hopped into her little black Chevy and drove off, melting into the menagerie of DC traffic. Eventually she worked her way out of the city, and when she got to the point where her GPS suddenly and completely cut off, she knew she was getting close. She turned a corner, and suddenly a gate in what would have looked like a solid wall of graffitied concrete pushed open. Turning on her headlights, she drove inside, parked her car, and swiftly made her way to headquarters. 

Fury looked stressed--then again, he always did these days--and Agent Hill stood behind him, arms folded across her chest. He looked up from the undefined spot on the desk that he stared at when Aly walked in. 

“Agent Reeves,” he said, “Glad you made it.”

Aly snapped into a more militant mode. “Sir.” 

“I hate to call you in on your day off, but we got a situation.”

Aly smiled just barely as she made her way further in. “I figured.” Her face fell to stone once again. “What’s going on?”

Agent Hill took over. “This afternoon at around thirteen hundred hours a special mission was given to a very select and elite squadron. They were tasked with tracking down and extracting the Winter Soldier.” 

Aly’s brow furrowed as she crossed her arms. “I thought he was just a ghost story.”

“A lot of people do,” Fury said, leaning back in his chair. “That’s usually when he puts a slug through ‘em.”

His voice held the distinct edge of personal experience.

“When Insight was initiated, the Soldier was deployed once HYDRA was revealed,” Agent Hill continued. “Captain Rogers engaged him and was nearly killed, and he’s got a lot more blood on his hands than that. He’s been loose ever since then.”

“And that’s  _ dangerous,”  _ Fury added. 

Aly nodded. “So, you’re trying to get him off the streets. Guess something didn’t go as planned?”

“Captain Rogers was here on base at the same time the squad was receiving their orders,” Agent Hill said. “He went missing shortly afterwards.” 

“We think he might be trying to take matters into his own hands,” Fury added, “and that doesn’t mean what you think it means.”

“You’re saying he’d get in the way?” Her confusion actually registered in her voice.

“I’m saying he might just make our lives a whole lot harder.” Fury leaned forward on his elbows as he spoke.

“How?”

“Rogers and the Soldier had a personal connection back in the forties,” Agent Hill clarified. “We don’t know too much about the relationship at this point, but between the files and comments from Rogers himself, we have enough to conjecture that things might be about to get interesting.”

“Isn’t that how it always is?” Aly said, raising an eyebrow.

Fury shot her the closest thing he ever had to a smile. “Guess so.”

Aly straightened a little more. “What do you need me to do, sir?”

“I need you to find Rogers and convince him that whatever he’s about to do is a bad idea,” Fury deadpanned. “Then bring him back here for questioning.”

Aly looked at him funny. “You sending a big guy with me? Because if “bring him back” means what it usually means--” she laughed nervously “--then I’m gonna need at least three.”

“Tact, smarts, and a pretty smile,” Fury replied, leaning back in his chair. “All the big guys you need.”

Aly tried to speak again, but Agent Hill cut her off.

“In order for this to work, we need to send someone that he’s not going to recognize but that still has the necessary skillset.”

“That’s why we’re not sending another Avenger, in case you were wondering,” Fury said. After a silence, he added, “Cap’s stubborn, but he’s got a good head on his shoulders. You just have to get him to use it.”

Aly nodded. “We have any leads?”

“He was last seen today at fifteen hundred hours headed northeast,” Agent Hill said. “Company car. It...shouldn’t take much to track him down. Convincing him to come back with you with the laws of physics not on your side will be the tricky part.”

“I figured,” Aly said. “I’ll get some facial recognition software running and try and track down the license plate number on the vehicle. If that doesn’t work I’ll tap into highway cameras and social media. Hopefully that’ll nail him down.”

“Sounds good to me,” Fury said, “as long as you don’t scare him off.”

Aly smirked. “I won’t, sir.”

“I’m counting on it, Agent,” Fury said. “You’re dismissed.”

Aly gave him a crisp nod. “Sir.”

With that she turned on her heel and made her way to the little dark alcove that had become the closest thing she could get to an office. A beat-up office chair sat in front of a few computer screens, and a huge stack of files sat untouched on the corner of her desk. She fired up a few computers, opened a few windows, and let the programs crank. It wasn’t anything compared to the tech she used to have, but it did the trick, even if it did take longer--

“Fury got you chasing another rabbit, ma’am?” a voice said behind her. 

She grinned at the voice. It belonged to Agent Dalton Young, the only other member of  Special Forces Squad Six that Insight hadn’t claimed. Just as the words were coming out of his mouth, facial recognition finally finished warming up. When Captain Rogers’s face and information popped up in full view, she just turned to screen towards him in response. 

His dark eyes popped. “That’s one hell of a rabbit.”

She smirked a little as her fingers danced on the keyboard. “Yeah, but I’d rather be chasing him down than some of the other freaks on this planet.” Sighing, she crossed her arms across her chest.

A bright white grin popped against Dalton’s dark skin. “I get that, ma’am. I get that.”

Aly leaned forward and gave Dalton a little smile. “There something I can do for you, Agent Young?”

“No. I just--” he smiled again and wrung his hands together in happy anticipation “--I just wanted to tell you that the CIA reviewed my application and interview...and I got in. Terrorism Task Force.”

Her face lit up, though a little pang of sadness shot through her. “That’s awesome!” she said. “Congratulations, Dalton.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Dalton beamed. He eyed her a little. “They said the recommendation letter from my CO really put it over the top.”

She grinned. “Well it’s really hard to make a kid that graduated early from the Academy with top honors and already had four years of elite field experience under his belt look bad.”

Dalton just smiled humbly at his feet.

“I mean come on,” she continued, “to have done what you’ve done and only be twenty-two years old? That’s  _ insane _ . Most kids--including me--are just graduating college at that age. You gotta give yourself some credit here, too.”

Dalton smirked. “Well, when you put it  _ that _ way…”

They both laughed for a second. Then Aly grew silent as she leaned back in her chair and looked at him hard. 

“I’m gonna miss seeing you around, kid,” she said thoughtfully, “but you’re gonna go far. You aren’t the first to go from SHIELD to the CIA. They’ll be lucky to have you.”

Dalton just nodded. “Thank you, Agent Reeves.”

She only smiled in response.

“Well,” Dalton said, “I guess I’ll let you get back to work, ma’am--” he peered over her shoulder to the screen “--because it looks like you’ve already got a hit.” 

Quickly she spun her chair around and glued her attention to the computer screen, watching as the percent match bar rather quickly climbed to one hundred.

“Hill was right about one thing, Captain,” she muttered. “You  _ were _ easy to find.”

Besides, she decided as she bounced from screen to screen to solidify the lead, there were worse places to go than Brooklyn.  


	4. Brooklyn

Steve stared out at a familiar skyline. Bright city lights drowned out the stars that would have flecked the sky, and taxis flew down the street, looking like they might smack into a pedestrian or six but still managing on without a hitch. A mix of different cultures and languages popped out at him occasionally, and he walked with his head down and his hands in his pockets.

It may have looked a lot less gritty than it did when he was a kid, but he decided that Brooklyn’s old spirit hadn’t been broken at all. 

At any rate, home was home. 

Part of him still wondered at how he’d managed to lose SHIELD so fast a few hours ago, but he thought he’d take his luck and run at this point. Knowing Fury, he didn’t have long. 

He slid up under a streetlight, looked around a bit to make sure no one was close by, and slid an old, beat-up manilla folder out from underneath his jacket. The light made the Cyrillic print on the front look even more intimidating than it usually did, and he opened the folder quickly. 

He’d glanced through the records once after Natasha gave it to him, but as he hadn’t really been able to get past the two pictures in the very front of the file, each read-through hadn’t been very thorough. That, and most of it was written in Russian, which he didn’t speak a lick of. The thought was cut short when his eyes caught the pictures again: one with his best friend’s face eerily frozen stiff in a cryotube, the other taken the day Sergeant James Barnes received his orders. 

That one, the Bucky he knew, hurt the most. 

He found himself wondering not for the first time what would happen if and when he finally did find Bucky. He was still breathing, so he knew his old friend had to have been in there still, but he still had no idea what he would do. What he would say. 

He felt his phone vibrate sharply in his pocket, and he shoved the folder back inside his jacket and picked it up. 

“Whaddaya got, Sam?” 

_ “Nothing,”  _ Sam’s voice replied.  _ “From here to the end of the island and back, it’s pretty much dead.” _

“Huh,” Steve grunted.

_ “Kinda looks like Fury’s sitting on his ass at this point.” _

“Which means he definitely isn’t,” Steve said firmly. “Keep your eyes peeled.”

_ “Roger that. Any leads on our missing persons case?”  _

Steve sighed hard. “Not yet.”

_ “Hang in there, Cap. I’m gonna make one more sweep. I’ll let you know if I see anything.” _

“Thanks, Sam.” 

_ “Over and out.”  _

He hung up and shoved his phone back into his pocket. A bright, neon open sign in the window of an old waffle house he had the suspicion had been there as long as he’d been gone called his name, and he tentatively crossed the street and stepped inside. It wasn’t long before he found himself mulling over a cup of coffee and making another futile attempt at going through that KGB file under the table. 

Once again he just stared at the photos and willed the Russian to turn into something he could actually read.

It wasn’t much, but it was all he had at this point. And with SHIELD trailing the Winter Soldier with high powered technology and the latest in facial recognition software, he knew he was  _ hilariously _ outgunned. 

He needed help, but he didn’t know who else to call.

So he pulled his baseball cap down tighter onto his head, took a sip of coffee, and prayed Sam would find something. 

***

Even with advanced combat training and a few compact nine-millimeters concealed under her brown leather bomber jacket, Aly still wasn’t fond of walking alone through a big city at night.

She kept her head on a swivel, stuck to the brightest areas, and fiercely stared down anyone who crossed her path as she made her way out of the parking garage and out onto the street. If the software on her phone hadn’t completely lost its mind--and it didn’t usually--her target sat just on the other side of that crosswalk in a run-down restaurant. Which was convenient: she hadn’t stopped for food once since she set out from the SHIELD base and  _ desperately  _ needed a cup or five of coffee to keep her eyes open at this point. Still, she slid her phone into her hand and called headquarters with a simple message:

“Agent Reeves to headquarters: target in sight and soon to be engaged.”

_ “Roger that,”  _ Hill’s voice said from the other side.  _ “Keep us posted.” _

Nodding, she slid her phone back into her bag, crossed the street, and slipped inside. 

The dim lights in the old waffle house forced Aly to squint a little to be able to see, but she gained her bearings quickly. Immediately she noted two exits: the one behind her and another in front, and she did her best to keep eyes on both. A few beat-up leather booths and a small bar with stools that at one time probably matched the booths were all the establishment boasted.  Not many customers populated the place--not surprising given the neighborhood--but the few that were there chatted or stared blankly into steaming cups of coffee. One of them in particular caught her eye. He sat alone in an old grey T-shirt and a baseball cap, muscular frame bent over a mug of coffee that had most likely long since gone cold. 

She’d know that profile anywhere. 

Rogers.

He didn’t seem to be overly in a hurry, so she took her time and gave him some space. She sat down at the bar four or five seats away from him and pretended to mull over a laminated menu. The middle-aged woman behind the counter walked over to her.

“Know what you want, sugar?”

“Just coffee for now, thank you,” Aly replied. 

She continued to pretend to read as the woman poured the coffee. Keeping one eye on the exits and the other on Rogers, she added cream and sugar and took a sip. She knew she needed to get his attention without scaring him off or blowing her cover too much, and a plan began to form in her head. 

She unlocked the passcode on her phone, opened an app that would make her phone go off in a few seconds, and shoved it back into the bottom of her bag. When the ringtone went off, she quickly stood up and began rummaging through her purse, and when she got just behind Rogers, she faked a trip and smacked into the red and white tiles on the floor, spilling her purse in the process. 

Not exactly graceful, but it did the trick. 

Rogers was immediately beside her. 

“Oh, my God, are you okay?”  

“Yeah, I--” She sat up and tried to gather the mess. “Oh, why am I such a clutz? On top of everything else...”

“Here.” He began picking her things up and putting them back in the bag. 

“Thank you,” she said, trying to make it sound like she knocked the wind out of herself. “Thank you so much.”

He gave her a little smile as he stood up. “No problem.”

He held a hand down to help her up and she took it, but as soon as she moved

to stand she cried out and flopped back onto the floor.

Rogers’ brow furrowed. “What is it?”

“My ankle,” she whimpered. “It didn’t bother me until I moved it, but now...oh, God, it hurts!” 

“It doesn’t look like it’s broken or anything,” he said, “but if it’s hurting you that bad, you should probably get it checked out.” He helped her up, and she threw in a few winces for good measure.

“There’s a hospital not too far from here. I can take you there if you want.”

She giggled. “What a gentleman! You’re a godsend, you really are!”

She dug for her keys, and they hobbled out to her car. Once she was settled in shotgun, he went around to the driver’s seat and fired up the engine. 

“I can’t thank you enough,” Aly said as they pulled out. “What’s your name?”

“...Chris,” he said, obviously coming up with the cover right off the top of his head. He stopped at a stoplight. “What’s yours?”

She pulled out her I.D. and almost sounded a little apologetic.

“Agent.”

“Reeves, Alyson P.,” he read. His voice dropped. “SHIELD Special Forces.” 

“Yup,” she said. “Game over, Rogers.” 

“I take it your ankle’s good, then? It was a nice little stunt you pulled back there, though. How’d you find me?”

“It was about like tracking a T-Rex through snow,” she said. 

He let out a hollow chuckle. “That bad, huh?”

“Well, maybe that’s a little harsh, but yeah.” 

The hum of wind noise filled the silence. Rogers broke it. 

“Why’d you come after me?”

“You overheard info about a secret mission to hunt down the Winter Soldier and then went AWOL shortly afterwards. Fury’s not exactly thrilled, so he sent me to find you and bring you back for questioning.”

He sighed. “I guess this is where it gets complicated, then.” He took his eyes off the road long enough to look dead at her. “I’m not going back. Not yet.”

Aly sat up a little straighter. “You have to. I’m sorry, Captain, but orders are orders.”

“I’m not going back until I find him.”

“Find who? The Winter Soldier?”

He stayed stubbornly silent. 

“You weren’t given that assignment, Rogers.”

“I’m not doing this for SHIELD, Agent Reeves. I’m doing it for Bucky.”

Her brow furrowed. “Bucky?”

He nodded, and he suddenly seemed a little saddened. “That’s his name--his real name. James Buchanan Barnes...Bucky for short. He and I go way back.” 

In spite of her confusion, she decided to hear him out.

“He was supposedly killed during the war,” Rogers continued, “but HYDRA had him the whole time. Turned him into what SHIELD saw in Washington. If SHIELD finds him, they’ll kill him.” His voice gained determination. “I thought I’d lost him once. It’s not happening again.”

The story touched her, but she still had a job to do. She tried to find a way to talk some sense into him.

“It sounds like HYDRA did some nasty things to him. Things that can mess a guy up for life.” She knew what she had to say next would probably make him angry, but she said it anyway in the most sympathetic tone she could manage. “Even if you do find him, how do you know your friend even exists anymore?” 

“Because on the day that he was supposed to end me, he saved my life,” Rogers replied. “Soldiers don’t do stuff like that. Friends do.  _ That’s _ how I know that he’s still in there.” He stopped the car. “I know you’ve got a job to do, Agent Reeves, and I hate to get in your way, but I gotta find Bucky before SHIELD does.” 

They stayed silent for a few moments.

“Headquarters already knows I’ve found you,” she said, this time with a lot less conviction than before. “I can’t just let you go.”

“I’ll make you a deal then,” he said. “I’ll go back with you, but only if you help me find Bucky first. I’ll explain everything to Fury when we get back, and if he doesn’t like it, I’ll handle the consequences. It’s all on me. Deal?”

She definitely didn’t like it, but at this point, she really didn’t have a choice. She nodded a little. 

“Deal.”

Every warning bell inside her starting ringing full force, but she didn’t miss the relief that shot across Rogers’s features. He looked like he was about to say something, but his phone cut him off. He dug it out of his pocket and put it on speaker. 

“Sam.”

_ “Yeah, you said Fury wouldn’t sit around for long, and you were right,”  _ a rushed whisper replied. _ “Wherever you are, you gotta get moving. Task Force on Atlantic.” _

Rogers glared at Aly. 

“Hey, I was the only one Fury sent after you,” she said.

“Apparently not,” Rogers sassed, speeding up. 

_ “Who the hell is that?”  _ the voice through the phone demanded.

“She’s good...I think. I’ll explain later.”

Aly sighed hard. “Fury did  _ not _ send a squad after you, but there is still a Task Force out there hunting down the Soldier. And they must have had the same idea you did.”

“‘Cause you tipped them off?” Rogers snapped. 

Aly scoffed hard. “Look, I don’t like this any more than you do, Captain, but if I’m gonna help you, then you’re gonna have to trust me.”

And she’d have to return the favor. That made her a lot more uncomfortable than she felt like it should have. Rogers’s face took on an almost sadder flavor. 

“Give me a reason to, and I will.” 

She looked ahead just as a helicopter swooped overhead. Shouts and flashlights jumped out at them from every direction. She swallowed hard. 

“I’m about to give you plenty.”


	5. Taking a Gamble

Steve turned back to his phone.

“How far up the street does the patrol go?” 

_ “Not too far,”  _ Sam’s voice replied. _ “If you went up Liberty for a few miles, you could probably get around it.” _

“No good. They already know we’re here.” Agent Reeves tensed up significantly. “Get out of the car.”

Steve gave her a little bit of a look. “Agent--”

“I can get through this rendezvous on my own no sweat, Captain, but the second they see you, we’re done!” 

“How do you know I won’t just run off?”

She set her jaw. “If I expect you to trust me, then I kinda gotta return the favor, don’t I?”

She didn’t sound thrilled about the idea at all, but he forced the thought out of his head.

_ “Steve…” _

Sam sounded just as uncomfortable as Steve felt, but as the helicopter made a second sweep and faded out of sight, he sighed hard. 

“No, she’s right,” he said. 

Sam all but growled through the phone.  _ “How do you know she’s not gonna turn us in?” _

The idea stopped him short. He turned around sharply to face Agent Reeves, trying to read an answer. She didn’t say a word, which didn’t help in the least, but at this point, he figured he didn’t have a choice. 

“It’s a risk we’re gonna have to take,” he sighed, undoing his seatbelt and moving for the door handle. Agent Reeves held up a hand.

“Wait…” Her eyes scanned the agents moving around in front of her for a second. “Go, go now.”

Without a word he shoved the phone in his pocket and jumped low out of the car, rolling into a more dimly lit area. He could barely see Agent Reeves crawling over to the driver’s seat before the car moved quickly forward. Sighing, he jogged up an alley towards Liberty Avenue and pulled his phone back out. 

“Sam, get me eyes on Agent Reeves.” 

_ “Gotta know what I’m looking at first,”  _ Sam replied. 

Steve picked up his pace. “Black chevy.”

_ “That narrows it down. I need the driver.” _

Steve just barely suppressed an eye-roll. “Blonde hair, bomber jacket, killer smile.”

_ “Got it,”  _ Sam said. “ _ Sounds cute.”  _

“‘Cute’ won’t get us out of this,” Steve huffed. 

_ “Yeah, I get the feeling ‘cute’ may’ve gotten us into it.”  _

Steve rolled his eyes. “Just get me eyes on her!”

_ “On it,”  _ Sam replied. 

Light from headlights bounced at him from Atlantic in between buildings. Voices faded in and out of earshot, and though none of them sounded perturbed, he kept jogging until he found a stopping point. Sam’s timing was perfect. 

_ “Think I got her. Let me focus in.”  _

Steve waited for a second. Sam suddenly whistled low.

_ “Damn, she  _ is _ cute.” _

“Focus, please!” Steve growled. “What’s she doing?”

_ “Rolling up to the checkpoint. Looks like they’re just gonna wave her through.”  _

A little bit of relief took some of the weight off of Steve’s shoulders a few seconds too early. 

_ “Wait...they’re flagging her down. She’s stopping.”  _

Steve poked his head around the corner of a building, hoping to get a better view, but when an agent on the other end of the alley glanced his way, he glued himself back up against the wall.

_ “She’s rolling the window down.”  _ Sam sighed.  _ “She better not screw us over.”  _

Steve got moving again. “Nothing we can do about it now.”

Phone in hand, he took off down the street, hoping to God that the gamble he’d just made didn’t cost him. 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Good evening, ma’am,” the young agent said as he leaned down into Aly’s car window, polite smile sprawled across his face. “Identification, please?” 

She produced the card, and after he examined it, his eyebrows shot up. 

“Level seven?” he said. “Man, we must really be getting close to the Soldier if Fury’s sending you out here.” 

“Not after the Soldier, kid,” Aly replied, “but good luck when you do find him. Lord knows you’re gonna need it.” 

The young agent laughed a little bit as another, higher ranking agent came up behind him.

“Agent Reeves,” he said. “Good to see you again.” 

“Agent Cox,” she replied. 

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, flashing a cocky grin. “What brings you to Brooklyn?”

She hesitated. Sure, she’d agreed to help Captain Rogers, but she hadn’t exactly been thrilled with the prospect of going on a joy ride after an infamous international terrorist from the moment the words left her mouth. Alone, she definitely couldn’t do much to bring Rogers in outside of the deal, but with backup like this--

_ No, _ her conscious snapped.  _ He trusts you for some odd reason. You can’t do that to him.  _

Still, if she did, she’d be able to go home--

But when she pictured his face as he told her his story and when his voice echoed in her head, she couldn’t make herself. 

Agent Cox’s grin became more strained the more she waited, so she shot him a smile that she hoped would get him off her case.

_ “Classified,”  _ she said. 

“Gotcha,” he replied. “Well, when you’re free, let me know if ‘classified’ wants to grab dinner sometime or something.” 

She laughed. “I’ve been turning that offer down since the New York incident, Cox. What makes you think I’d change my mind now?”

He shrugged. “Feelin’ lucky, I guess.” 

She just rolled her eyes and shot him another grin that was definitely strained. 

“Go on through, ma’am,” the younger agent said.

“You have a good night, Aly,” Agent Cox said, winking.

She did her very best to keep her irritation out of her voice. “You, too.”

The car started off again, and she rolled the window back up as quickly as she could. Once it had, she sighed with relief.

“Thank  _ God _ that’s over,” she muttered to herself. 

She went on a little farther before turning up an alley towards Liberty. When she caught sight of a familiar figure moving stealthily towards her, she flashed her headlights a few times before turning them out. The logistical side of her brain suddenly protested again. 

She’d had  _ backup  _ back there. A way to get the job done without doing anything that Fury didn’t like...again. A way that guaranteed success--

But Rogers had also once ploughed through ten armed STRIKE guys by himself in an  _ elevator.  _ She’d seen the footage herself. 

Maybe this was to best way after all, gamble that it was.

_ At any rate, Reeves, you’d better not blow it.  _

As Rogers opened the door and slid into the passenger seat, she decided it was a risk she was going to have to take.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

“They ask questions?” Steve said quickly as Agent Reeves turned her headlights back on and drove off.

“Yeah, but I don’t think ‘can I buy you dinner’ constitutes anything you’d have to worry about,” she replied, still sounding a little short. 

He sighed louder than he’d wanted to. “Good. I was actually afraid you’d throw me under the bus for a second.” 

“Now, why would I do that? Turning over Captain America just seems kinda unpatriotic, dontcha think?” 

He thought he picked up on a little pang of guilt in her voice, and he had to stop himself before his mind formed too many questions. He turned to her.

“Thanks--”

Just then the helicopter swept over their heads, especially low. They didn’t make anything of it until it suddenly  _ doubled back _ . 

Agent Reeves’s eyes bugged, but she still seemed content to drive the speed limit, so he forced himself to relax. 

Until a bunch of guys in tactical suits came running towards them, rifles drawn. 

Agent Reeves sighed. “ _ Great _ .”

She swerved hard and promptly disregarded the speed limit. 

It wasn’t long before a huge trail of SUVs and compact cars like the one he rode in came barreling into the rearview. The car’s engine revved again as it accelerated to a speed that was probably ungodly, swerving past the other hostile vehicles that seemed to pour out of the woodworks. Steve went for his phone. 

“Sam! We’re in a bit of a situation!” 

_ “Hell yes you are,”  _ Sam replied dryly from the other side.  _ “Agent Blondie have anything to do with it?” _

“If I did, I wouldn’t currently be tearing through this neighborhood at _ninety miles an hour,_ would I?” Agent Reeves snapped back, suddenly swerving down a smaller alley to dodge the SUV that blocked her original path.

_ “...Fair point.”  _

“Find us a way out, Sam!” Steve shouted.

_ “Hold on...all right, there’s an opening to the bridge, but it won’t stay open long. I’ll buy you some time, but you gotta move.”  _

“Roger that,” Agent Reeves replied, banking onto the highway.

Shots began raining on them from behind. They sped up down the straight-away, but more SUVs kept pouring in from behind them. Steve caught one of the officer’s faces in the rearview: hard, angular, and angry-looking as he stuck a rifle out the window and aimed. Before he could fire, a few shots sounded from the sky, and the SUV spun out of control, slamming into a few others and causing a massive pile-up. 

“Thanks, Sam.” 

_ “Ain’t over yet, Cap! You got at least three more on your nine o’clock! They’re coming up fast!”  _

“Then take care of them. Just don’t get any of them killed,” Steve replied. 

_ “On it!”  _

As if on cue, a few SUVs popped into view. The crack of gunfire and smell of burning rubber told Steve Sam had at least been somewhat successful, but a black jeep and two SUVs still followed them. The jeep’s passenger opened fire, and the glass in the back window cracked with the rounds still stuck in the holes. When the shooter turned to reload, Agent Reeves leaped into action. 

“Take the wheel!” she barked. “Do it now!”

He reached across her and grabbed the wheel, suddenly swerving to avoid some debris, and Agent Reeves produced a pistol, put a round in the barrel, rolled the window down, and shot out the jeep’s tires. It flipped over itself behind them, rolling several times before smacking into one of the SUVs and sending it spinning into a concrete wall. She then shoved the pistol back into its place.

“How’s that for a reason?” she sassed, rolling the window back up and taking the wheel.

Steve allowed himself a smirk before the remaining SUV pulled up beside them, suddenly ramming itself into the side of Reeves’s car. She sped up, but the driver matched her, ramming into them again and sending them skidding down the concrete wall. Sparks flew and metal screamed. Finally Steve rolled down his window and punched through the SUV’s. Glass bit into his hand, and it bled, but he didn’t really care as he rammed the driver’s face into the wheel so hard the airbags deployed. The vehicle squealed away from them, and Agent Reeves sent her battered car forward even farther as he rolled up the window. 

Not a hostile in sight.

Steve heaved a sigh of relief, but Agent Reeves’s face still twisted into a determined scowl. 

“What kind of leads you got on the Soldier?” she asked. 

“Honestly, not much,” Steve replied a little awkwardly, “but I do have this.” 

He produced the old KGB file, and she quickly glanced at it before refocusing on the road. Her eyebrow arched.

“You got anything better?”

He’d known she probably would’ve been hoping for something more, but the flatness in her voice still frustrated him a bit. He barely suppressed an eyeroll.

“No.”

“Any way to get it? Facial recognition, encryption software, GPS?”

“...No.”

She eyed him hard. “Do you have  _ any _ kind of surveillance training  _ whatsoever _ ?”

“No.”

“Then how the hell were you supposed to find him?”

Steve shrugged. “I was gonna...look.”

She heaved a noisy sigh. “Oh, bless your heart--”

Suddenly heavy gunfire sounded again, and the car spun around a few times before flipping over into an alley.

They may have dodged the ground forces, but they’d  _ completely _ forgotten about the helicopter. It hovered for a few seconds before flying over their heads. 

Now Steve smelled smoke. An orange glow started to creep up the side of the building they’d hit while the interior grew incredibly hot. He turned and shook Agent Reeves’s shoulder; she didn’t respond. Quickly he kicked his door open and ran to the other side, just as an object came cutting through the air towards him and sank into the roof of the car. 

His shield.

He wrenched it out from the metal and used it to break the other door down, ripping it off its hinges to get to Agent Reeves. Just as the flames started to lick around her, he pulled her out and dragged her to the safety of the deeper shadows around the corner. He shook her shoulder again.

“Agent Reeves…”

She didn’t respond, but she wasn’t hurt, so he wasn’t too concerned. He tried again.

“Agent Reeves?”

Wincing a little, she came to. 

“Careful, Captain,” she groaned. “They got a helicopter.”

Smirking, he helped her to her feet. She steadied herself on his shoulder for a second as agents poured into the alley, shouting and surrounding the wreckage with rifles drawn. 

“Sorry about your car,” Steve said.

A sudden explosion sent a taller plume of flame shooting out of the engine, and white light ripped the dark as a machine gun went off from the inside, sending a hail of bullets into the agents surrounding the car.

Agent Reeves shrugged. “Wasn’t mine.” 

Steve nodded. “Let’s get outta here.” 

He took off around the corner, Agent Reeves on his heels, and he didn’t stop until he found the motorcycle he’d “borrowed” earlier. He hopped on and fired up the engine as Agent Reeves sat behind him and hung on. The Brooklyn Bridge finally sprawled out in front of them as Sam flew overhead, and they crossed it, riding through Manhattan’s bustling nightlife and into New Jersey, where the quiet and darkness of late night enveloped them.     

They’d  _ finally _ gotten away. 

But as Agent Reeves tightened her grip on him, Steve wondered how long that would actually last. 


	6. Ghosts

Agent Reeves had told him about it on the way, but when the little safe house actually popped into view, relief washed over Steve a little more than he’d expected it to. Well concealed in the middle of nowhere, it didn’t look like much, but once Agent Reeves entered the passcode, the metal doors opened to reveal a small but solid compound with a few bunks, a small arsenal, a microwave, other supplies, and various pieces of SHIELD tech.

“Special Forces used to use these places back in the day,” Agent Reeves said. “Since Insight we haven’t really, but--” she shrugged “--make yourself at home. If you don’t mind, Captain, I’d like to take a look at that file as soon as I can.”

“Sure thing,” Steve replied, “but I think you oughta meet our air support first.”

Sam came in behind him as he spoke and grinned. “How you doin’?”

“Eyes in the sky, huh?” Agent Reeves said, smiling for the first time since she’d revealed herself. “You really saved our necks back there.”

Sam’s grin widened. “You didn’t do so bad yourself.” He held out his hand. “Sam Wilson.”

She took it and gave it a good shake. “Aly Reeves.”

“In it for the long run now, huh?” Sam continued. He turned to Steve. “Guess our gamble paid off.”

Agent Reeves smiled again, but it faded quickly as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, I know what it is to lose a friend.”

Pursing his lips together into a sad smile, Sam nodded a little, while Agent Reeves seemed to draw more and more into herself at the statement. Steve sighed hard before pulling the file out from under his jacket.

“You wanted to take a look at it?” he said.

“Oh,” Agent Reeves replied, starting a little as she seemed to snap out of some sort of reverie. “Yeah. Tech in here’s a little dated, but it’ll get the job done.” She took the file and glanced once at the cover before her eyes popped a little. “KGB. How on Earth did you get this?”

Steve shrugged. “Favor from a friend.”

Agent Reeves’s eyebrows shot up. “You must have some pretty interesting friends, then.”

Steve just laughed a little. “That’s one way to put it.”

She smiled knowingly before going back to the file. “Man, this thing’s as old as I am. September 1984. Might be dated, but it’s a start. I’ll see what I can get from it and we’ll go from there.”

“Sounds good to me,” Sam said. “Me, I’m gonna go brush my teeth. Had a mosquito stuck up in there since Manhattan and it’s driving me nuts.”

Agent Reeves made a face. “Fun. Go take care of that.”

With that Sam disappeared, leaving Steve with Agent Reeves, who turned towards one of the computers and fired up the holograms before opening the file. She fixated on something in it before picking it up. The old picture of Bucky in his dress greens.

“Is this him?” she said.

Steve nodded as he came over a little closer. “Yup. It was taken the day he got his orders.”

Agent Reeves grinned. “Good looking guy.”

“Yeah,” Steve replied, running a hand through his hair. “He always got all the girls.”

Her eyebrow arched a little, and she looked at him disbelievingly. “And you _didn’t_?”

He chuckled at the floor. “I wasn’t always like this, you know.”

She just smiled knowingly and turned back to the picture. “How’d you meet him?”

“Kids on the playground were beating me up,” Steve replied. “Bucky was the only one to stick up for me. Been friends ever since.”

“Sounds like a good man,” she said. Her voice dropped a little. “Makes what HYDRA did to him even more of a shame.”

Steve didn’t quite know what to say; he just nodded as Agent Reeves took the picture and slid it under a scanner. Tiny lines of blue light inched across it before it reappeared even larger on the hologram with a large title reading _Barnes, James Buchanan_. She tapped a few choices and started facial recognition.

“It didn’t take me long to find you doing this,” she said, “but for someone who’s as good at dropping off the map as the Winter Soldier, it’ll take all night at least, if it’s successful at all.”

“It’s more than I had a few hours ago,” Steve replied, shrugging.

She turned to face him and smiled a little. “At any rate, it’s a start.”

He nodded, but concern suddenly washed over Agent Reeves’s face as she came a little closer to him.

“You gonna look after your hand?”

Confusion hit him for a second, but he then saw his right hand covered in mostly dried blood with a few cuts still oozing. He shrugged.

“I’ve had worse--”

“You got glass sticking outta your knuckles,” she deadpanned, setting her hand on her hip and giving him a look that reminded him _distinctively_ of an old friend. “Here, I’ll take care of it.”

“You don’t have to do that, Agent Reeves.”

She smiled a little ruefully. “Please, after all the crap I’ve put you through tonight, it’s the least I can do.”

He sighed and nodded, sitting down while she rummaged through a few cabinets until she found medical supplies. She sat down in front of him, and he gave her his hand. Gently she worked to clean the dried blood off before going after the glass shards with tweezers and disinfecting the cuts. She worked in silence initially, but she suddenly stopped.

“I, uh...about tonight,” she stammered before looking him dead in the eye. “I owe you one.”

A lopsided smile crept onto his face. “After all I’ve put you through tonight, it’s the least I could do.”

She just laughed at her words being fired back on her. He sighed hard.

“Listen, I know we didn’t get off to the best of starts, but I wanna tell you how glad I am to have you on my team.”

Dressing the cuts, she smiled a little again.

“I’d like to keep going, but on the right foot this time.”

She paused for a second so she could look at him. “I’d like that, too.”

He smiled. “Good.”

She returned the smile, and her bluish-grey eyes lit up.

“I’d be willing to bet you don’t go by Agent Reeves all the time,” he said. “And saying it over and over again is kinda exhausting, if you ask me.”

She grinned as she began to work a bandage around his hand. “Well, my friends usually call me Aly. You can call me that,” she said, sliding a clasping pin on the bandage, “I mean, if you want to.”

He nodded. “Aly.”

The name felt good.

“You can call me Steve,” he said.

Aly smiled. “Sounds good to me.”

_____________________________________________________________________

_“SHIELD’s not what you thought it was. It’s been overtaken by HYDRA.”_

_“We fight until we can’t stand, you got that?! Whatever it takes, we will get these people out! Keep the exit clear at all costs!”_

_“Are you deaf or are you stupid?! Agent St. Claire is down; I need an ambulance now!”_

_“Get out of there, Reeves! You can’t save them--”_

_“No! We can still do this!”_

_“Call in the Asset! Call in the Asset!”_

_“Oh, my God, the building’s coming down!”_

_“Just stay with me, ma’am! You’re gonna be all right!”_

_“What have I done--?!”_

Spewing panicked incoherencies, Aly bolted upright. Shaking hands furiously wiped her tear-soaked face dry before running through her now tangled hair and balling it in her fists. Though reality slowly started to come back to her--the blanket wrapped around her legs, the hardness of the cot, the harsh blue light from the hologram leaking into the room from around the corner--her body still rocked, her eyes still wrenched shut, her breaths still came in shallow. As she tugged on her hair, her voice autonomously muttered the same phrase over and over again:

“Agent Alyson Paige Reeves, Commander, SHIELD Special Forces Squad Six, Arlington, Virginia, A-144021…”

Somewhat more stable, she untangled herself from the blanket and put her feet on the floor, the cold roughness of the concrete serving to ground her even further.

She hadn’t had a dream like this in a few months. Her thoughts ran wild with confusion at first before realizing the trip to the memorial--the first time she’d set foot on the grounds of SHIELD’s old headquarters since the attack--must have triggered it.

Head still in her hands, she forced deep, rolling breaths into her lungs, and her muscles finally started to unlock. But when a large shadow suddenly blocked the light, she jumped badly.

“Hey, easy. Easy. It’s all right. You’re all right.”

The speaker came forward slowly and purposefully, hands raised a little.

“I get them, too. Trust me, I get it.”

She finally caught her breath. “Steve?” She groaned. “I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

The ghost of an empathetic smile slipped onto his face. “I’ve been up.” He heaved a heavy sigh as he carefully sat next to her. “Like I told you...I get them, too.”

A beat of silence passed. Steve broke it.

“Do you...do you wanna talk about it?”

She swallowed hard. “I will if you will.”

He nodded. She took in a deep breath.

“Washington, last year. My entire command was gunned down.” She fought back the emotion that started to surface before continuing. “There were people trapped all throughout the building. They so much as moved, STRIKE would take them out. We were trying to hold the exit and get people to safety. Didn’t exactly go as planned.”

“I’m so sorry.” He shook his head a little. “What command was it?”

“Special Forces Squad Six,” she replied.

A strange look came into his eyes at the mention of it, but she didn’t have the energy to ask any questions. She sighed hard. He just sat in patient, empathetic silence, so she found it in her to keep going.

“Things were looking up. But...HYDRA had a sniper. Never saw him. Just...slugs coming outta nowhere. Whoever it was took them down first and saved me for last. Gave me these lovely mementos.” She moved her hair to reveal a nasty scar on her shoulder and rubbed her side where the other one was. Her teeth clenched. “If I only could’ve gotten eyes on him...if I’d have pulled them out when I had the chance--”

“Don’t do that to yourself,” Steve said.

“When you get a command, what’s one of the first things they tell you?” she replied, suddenly turning towards him.

He thought for a second. “Be the first man in and the last man out.”

“Exactly,” she said. “That day, I was the first in, but--” she scoffed a little “--when they said ‘last man out,’ this isn’t exactly what they meant.” She went quiet for a second. “I thought just by sheer will we’d be able to stop HYDRA, if we just worked together we’d be able to win the day and pop a few cold ones like we always did.” She shook her head. “I was...so hilariously wrong.”

Sighing, he shifted around a little. “I know it’s hard. Trust me, I’ve been there more times than I’d like to think about. But...sometimes, things happen that we just can’t control. We do our best but, some days, not everybody makes it out. We’re gonna have losses, and we’ll beat ourselves up over it. But if we can’t get back up, then what happens the next time the call goes out?”

She considered his words for a second; then, she slowly began to nod.

“They never gave up on me,” she slowly said. “Even when I was at less than my best.” She paused for a second. “It’s the reason why I worked through lunch on leave and drove straight through dinner to find you. I made them a promise: that no matter what, I wouldn’t fail like that again.”

He smiled a little. “Just by getting back up and getting back out there, you’ve already fulfilled that promise. Trust me.”

She met his eyes for the first time. “Thank you.”

“Absolutely.”

Silence held sway for a few seconds. Aly broke it.

“That was a rough day for you, too, wasn’t it?”

He just shook his head and slumped. “Best friend I ever had shot me five times. Didn’t even know me until the end. Every time I close my eyes, I’m staring down the barrel of his gun again. I’m his mission again. That’s what’s keeping _me_ awake.”

She pursed her lips together in a sad smile.

“But he also saved your life, if I remember correctly,” she said.

He nodded. “That’s the part the nightmares leave out. And that’s why I gotta find him.” He smiled a little strangely. “I know you probably think I’m crazy.”

She laughed a little. “Oh, I think you’re insane. But I also think you’re incredibly loyal. These days, that’s a rare gem.”

He barely smiled up at her. She returned it before she continued.

“Most people will take it for granted. And some will even try to abuse it. But there are still those of us that see it and appreciate the hell out of it.” She grinned. “Even if we do think you’re nuts.”

He laughed for a second, but his face soon faded back to sombre sincerity. “Thank you, Aly.”

She nodded a little. “Sure. It...doesn’t fix anything, I _know,_ but--”

“It helps to be around somebody that gets it, if only a little bit.”

She smiled. “ _That_.”

He set his wrists on his knees, while she leaned back on her hands. He turned and looked at her, and his eyes locked with hers for a second. She suddenly noticed how blue his were.

“You...wanna go back to sleep?” he finally said.

She just shook her head. “Still wired, so there’s no point trying. Besides, sun’s gonna be up in an hour or so.”

He almost looked sad. “You sure?”

“Even when I don’t have nightmares--which is actually most of the time--sleep and I still have a love-hate relationship,” she replied, shrugging. She forced a smile. “Don’t worry about me.”

He stood up. “I make no promises.”

She smiled at her feet for a second before standing up and moving past him. “If I’m not getting any more sleep, might as well start going through that file. There’s no telling what might be in there.” She slid into a seat in front of the hologram. “And facial recognition hasn’t gotten a hit yet, so it’s probably best to think of any alternate strategies.”

She opened the file and started going through it, Steve standing behind her with a hand on the back of the chair.

“Take it you read Russian?”

She just nodded, muttering to herself as she took in the wealth of information.

“What are your specializations?”

“European linguistics and technological surveillance,” she replied, not even looking up at first.

He seemed puzzled, so she stopped her work for a second and turned to him.

“I hack stuff and I talk to people.”

He nodded. “Sounds useful.”

She sighed a little. “I also have multiple advanced combat certifications, but I’m hoping I don’t have to use them.”

“It’d be nice if we could get through without a hitch, but at this point it’s probably wishful thinking,” Steve replied.

Her eyebrows shot up for a second, and she suddenly leaned a little closer to the file and started running her finger under the text.

“You got something?”

She nodded. “This name.” She pointed to a specific spot in the Cyrillic. “Katya Novak.”

Steve’s brow furrowed. “You dealt with this person before?”

She nodded. “She was one of HYDRA’s best, but at the time we all just knew her as an ex-KGB freelance assassin. 2008, Belarus, of all places. She shared a mutual target with Squad Six. We got there first. Chavez was our big guy; he was taking up the rear. Novak took him down in a couple of blows. Disappeared _and_ took our lead with her. Took us months to track it down again.”

“Sounds like trouble,” Steve said.

“She’s definitely a handful, but according to this, she’s also got a serious connection with your friend. Apparently she was trained by the Winter Soldier.” She kept reading for a second.

“There a picture of her?”

“No, but thanks to Black Widow, that probably won’t take more than a Google search.” She turned away from the file long enough to get the search running on her phone. After a few more seconds of reading, her eyes bugged. “Oh, _wow_.”

“What?”

“The Soldier went off the grid for two weeks in the 1970s. Nobody knew where he went or why he disappeared. But he turned up in Brooklyn, so your first hunch wasn’t a bad one.”

He shrugged. “Home’s home.”

“This is where it gets interesting. The Soldier was found with an Agent Novak. They were both taken back to Siberia, severely punished, and reconditioned for, ah... _unsanctioned behavior.”_  

Steve looked confused. “Unsanctioned behavior? What’d they do?”

She gave him a look. “Think these multiple back-to-back transactions for a crappy motel room and a cheap bottle of vodka speak for themselves.”

Steve scoffed a little. “I don’t think he woulda--”

She just held up the picture on her phone--a beautiful Eastern European blonde bombshell with red lipstick and sharp black eyeliner--in response. Steve looked closer.

“Wait...yeah, he would’ve.”

“It can’t be the same person, though,” Aly said. “She’s younger than I am. Or at least...she _looks_ younger than I am. She might be one of their lab rats.”

After a minute, Agent Novak’s picture popped up next to Bucky’s.

“What’s your plan?”

“Well,” Aly replied, “finding Barnes directly is proving to be a dead end, but if we can find her--” she cranked up the necessary software “--we might be able to get somewhere.”

Steve crossed his arms over his chest. “Doesn’t sound like Novak’s the type that’d wanna play nice.”

A rueful grin cracked across her face. “Remember those combat certs I told you about?”

“Right. But if she gave you that much trouble the first time--”

“She won’t.” Determination hardened her voice as she stared head on at the screen.

The sun barely started to peek through the windows. Sam rounded the corner.

“You find him?”

“No, but I think Aly’s got our next lead,” Steve replied.

Sam stopped beside him, and his eyes popped when he saw the screen. _“Hel-lo._ Who is _that_?”

“Old friend of Bucky’s,” Steve replied.

“Friend. Sure.”

Steve just gave him a look in response. Sam turned to Aly.

“You know where she is?”

Just then the software got a hit. Aly leaned back in her chair. “Looks like we’re about to find out.”

The percentage quickly climbed to one hundred. Video footage of the same woman in a flaming red dress and heels suddenly popped up on the screen, along with coordinates and a city name:

“Moscow,” Steve read.

“Yup,” Aly said. “Either of you boys speak Russian?”

They both shook their head. Aly turned to the screen.

“Guess I’ll be doing most of the talking, then.”

_______________________________________________

**A/N: A huge thank you to Mischief's Angel for letting use her character, Agent Novak, for this story! She will be featured heavily in upcoming chapters, and I just wanted to take a minute to give credit where credit is due! If you want to learn more about Agent Novak, check out _From Russia With Love: Captive Minds_ by Mischief's Angel!**


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